The Georgia Supreme Court on Monday unanimously dismissed a longshot bid by former President Donald Trump to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis and quash the special grand jury report that recommended criminal charges in her probe of Georgia’s 2020 election.
The ruling from Georgia’s highest court came just weeks before Willis, who led the investigation of possible efforts by Trump and his allies to interfere in President Joe Biden‘s electoral victory in the Peach State, was expected to seek indictments.
Trump’s attorneys failed to show that the case presents “one of those extremely rare circumstances” that requires bypassing lower courts, the supreme court justices ruled. “Therefore, the petition is dismissed.”
In their petition four days earlier, Trump’s attorneys acknowledged that it would be highly unusual for the state supreme court to accept the case, since it normally reviews appeals from lower courts. But they nevertheless argued that the high court should take up the matter, in part because of Trump’s status as a former president and a 2024 presidential candidate.
Trump’s legal team had filed a similar request in Fulton County Superior Court.
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